The Biggest Caterpillar Ever

My tomatoes have been looking wonderful. But, I noticed today something was eating them. So, I went searching for the culprit. I must admit, I gave out a "EWW!" when I spotted this huge caterpillar devouring my tomatoes. Then I became intrigued with it's coloring and thought it was pretty cool. The baby(the one of the bottom) had a death grip on this tomato!! They are now save and sound in a glass jar, and I will see what happens. I googled hugh green caterpillar tomato and found this link. I'm amazed that Heavenly Father can take such a gross bug and put a beautiful pattern on it!! It was very hard to spot though so great camouflage!! Hopefully there were only two and the rest of my tomatoes are safe.

Lucky Number Seven

We have taken the same long boring road trip to Stanford Medical Center seven times this year!! First in January to have Evan evaluated for some breathing issues. Since then he has had three sleep studies, been diagnosed with restrictive lung disease, sleep apnea /hypopnea, and shown to have some cardiac arrhythmias. He has seen the pulmonologist, orthopedist, nephrologist and cardiologist.

Yesterday we saw the pulmonologist and today the cardiologist. And guess what!! They thought he was doing great!! Woo HOO!! He wore a heart monitor for a month and had nothing unusual, so we don't even have to see that doctor again. And the pulmonlogist thought he was doing great on the BiPAP machine!! Makes me happy!! I love the good news!!

Stanford Hospital has the most beautiful gardens. This little garden in a court yard was one my favorite to visit when Evan had his long 41 day hospital stay. It is so peaceful and quiet, no peeping machinery. Just a wonderful place to pray and find comfort. Today, we ran into the gardeners and I made sure to tell them I appreciate all the beautiful flowers!!

We had to stop at the fountain out front before we left. Evan was the first one to spot the beautiful rainbow. Must be a good sign!! Although for some reason he could NOT get to the pot of gold and the end!!

The Mystery Bird Solved

Well, yesterday, Mike and I were out bike riding and come across another unusual looking bird. You can see that it likes to hid in the tree. While Mike was taking the picture, I got brave and asked other people going by if they knew what kind of bird it was. One person said a Kingfisher, but two people said that it was a "Black Crested Night Heron" I thought that was an incredible cool name for a bird. Well, I looked it up on the Internet when I got home and found out that is actually a Black Crowned Night Heron. The cool thing was, as I was reading I saw the picture of the baby Black Crowned Night Heron and it was exactly like the bird in my Fine Feather Friends post that I thought was a green heron!! Anyway, I love how this bird just hides out in the trees about the water during the day. But, I spied him anyway, quite the trick when bike riding!! Now I wonder how many more of the birds family members are hiding. I think I'm turning into a bird watcher!!

Pachelbel Bedtime

I came across this today and thought it was totally awesome. Pachelbel is one of my favorite songs!! But, just so my kids know, this is NOT the version I want played at my funeral!! Then again, maybe, it's perfect!!
Enjoy!

Here is more about that Dad, http://www.thingamababy.com/baby/2007/09/help-get-dad-da.html

Love

Yesterday my daughter Katie called to tell me that her brother John and his wife Amy will be visiting them in a couple of weeks. When I hung up the phone I told Mike, "I love it when our kids do things together".

That got me to reminiscing back to when David, my first born, was a baby. I remember one day just sitting back and watching them interact. My heart was filled with such joy. Here was my wonderful husband, the man I loved deeply, playing with my much loved little baby boy. I could feel the love between them and thought, how wonderful when two people you love, love each other too!!

Now it continues. Our kids do things together, even though they are grown and we don't make them be nice to each other!!
And, just a few weeks ago David and his wife came to visit with our little grandson's. They had fun playing with Grandpa too!! Gotta love it!!!

Right Under My Nose

I found a great on line interactive book for children with spina bifida. It's called, "Right Under My Nose". It can be found at http://www.childrenshospitalla.org/spinabifidabookeng/index.html .


There is one saying in some of the activities that go with the book that I love. "Scars are just medals of skin that show you have been brave!!" Most Kids with spina bifida have lots of scars!! So what a great way to look at them as medals!!

The little boy in the story has a cute little stuffed doggie named Biff. His mom was very smart and put scars on the doggie right where her little boy had scars. So the little boys stuffed friend has scars just like him!! Anyway, check it out. It was written for children with spina bifda, but I think that other kids could learn from it too!!

Cori

Every Sunday all around the world Young Women of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints stand and recite their theme:

We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we love Him.
We will "stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things,
and in all places" (Mosiah 18:9) as we strive to live
the Young Women values, which are:
Faith
Divine Nature
Individual Worth
Knowledge
Choice and Accountability
Good Works, and
Integrity.
We believe as we come to accept and act upon these values,
we will be prepared to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants,
receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation.


Yesterday, Cori, who I meet when I was her Young Women advisor, gave the most beautiful missionary farewell talk. She has definitely taken the Young Women theme to heart. She shared a powerful testimony that we are indeed children of our loving Heavenly Father.
The Spirit was so strong in the meeting. I had tears in my eyes through most of her talk.

When Cori was a young teenager, I never imagined her going on a mission. She rarely wanted to be at any Young Women activity. Her ambition in life was to be a high school dropout. But, her heart was touched and her life changed one year when she attended EFY.

Cori touched my heart at Young Women camp this year. I had the great opportunity to be a cabin leader with her. She was totally amazing with those young girls and gave the best devotionals I have ever heard. It's interesting how things turn around. I hope that Cori somehow learned from me in Young Women. I know I have most definitely learned from her. One minute you are someone's teacher and next minute they are yours. Cori touched my heart and I know that the people in Helsinki Finland will have their hearts touched by her also.

I Madonnari Festival

Today is the last Saturday of summer, and it was totally gorgeous outside!
We went to Mission Plaza to take in all the beautiful street paintings at the
I Madonnari Festival.

I Madonnari is street painting done in chalk. We were very impressed!!

This lady did a painting of her husband and herself. They had just celebrated their anniversary and he had given her 2 dozen red roses.

This painting was huge.

And the girls face was absolutely beautiful!!

The even had a section where kids could purchase a box of chalk and have their own little square for a painting.

These were very impressive also.

And the kids were very happy with their work.

Most of them did much better than I ever could do!! Anyway it was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Fine Feathered Friends

Our local bike trail is a great place to spot wildlife. I've been trying to bike ride a few times a week. This week I brought along a camera and shot these quail crossing the path.

I was so happy the didn't scurry away quickly as they usually do.

This bird really intrigued me. I had never seen anything like it before. I think it might be a green heron. Does anyone know for sure??

I was trying to find an egret. But I spied this beautiful white bird instead. Not too sure what species it is either. So, if you know please tell me.

Lemon Fresh

There is nothing like a new paint job to make everything look new and refreshing. Here are before and after pictures of our home. We chose Fresh Lemon as the color. I think it came out great!! No more peeling ugly bald spots on our house anymore. If you click on the picture you can see what I mean. Now we have a bright, cheerful, happy house!!!

Who Needs an Alarm Clock.....

When you have birds that sit on the electric wires early in the morning and squawk like crazy?? Not sure what these birds are, either crows or ravens, I guess. They wakes us up each morning and come back to say, good evening, before it gets dark. Ever see the movie The Birds??????

Our Saturday Afternoon

Yesterday we found this great boardwalk along the bluffs of the ocean. I love how the cypress trees are bent from all the ocean breezes!!

This cute little squirrel greeted us. Looks like he wanted he a handout, but alas we had nothing to provide. Guess he will have to find his own food.

There were surfers aplenty, having fun on the waves.

At first we thought this was a guy riding his kayak on the waves....

But when I uploaded the pictures I could see that he was sitting on what looked more like a surf board. I couldn't help but wonder if he was a wheelchair user who found a great way to have fun in the waves.

The ocean was a brilliant blue!!

These seals were lazily stretching on the rocks!!

This cypress tree looked like it made a shady tunnel for the boardwalk. The temperature was wonderful and we found a great way to enjoy a Saturday afternoon.

More Initials

Evan's life is surrounded by initials. He gets OT and PT!! He wears AFO's, and has a VP shunt!! To keep his kidney's healthy he takes HCTZ!! He is on a low K diet. He is a client of CCS and TCRC! Of course we can't forget that he has an IEP!! I am sure there are a lot of others!!

Yesterday he added another initial. BiPAP ! It is used to treat OSA! I was a little nervous about the whole set up and everything. But, Evan did great with it. That kid is an incredible trooper. Not a complaint out of him. We are hoping and praying that it helps him to sleep and breath better.